ABOUT
An agency owner first.
An AI lead second.
I’m James Ansell. I founded Code23 in 2005, and for the last three years I’ve been changing how agencies work with AI, starting with my own.
JAMES ANSELL / FOUNDER OF CODE23, FRACTIONAL AI CONSULTANT
THE STORY
Twenty years
of agency life.
I started Code23 in 2005. Over the years we’ve delivered 350+ projects, grown to over 30 people at our busiest, and come through the hard years too. I’ve hired, pitched, won and lost clients, and rebuilt a team. I know what an agency’s margins, deadlines and client conversations feel like from the inside.
Three years ago I went all in on AI. I rebuilt how I work, then how my agencies work: four of them, before I asked anyone else to change. Now our senior people set the direction and own the result, and agents do much of the work in between.
Since then I’ve worked inside other agencies as their AI lead. Some I can’t name, but the pattern is always the same: the licences are bought, and very little else has changed yet.
HOW I WORK
People own
the outcome.
Your team makes the calls that matter.
Agents take on more and more of the work. Your people decide what goes live and own the result.
Safe with client work.
We agree which tools touch client data before anything is switched on.
Hands-on, not slides.
I build alongside your team, with the same set-up I use every day.
You work with me.
No account managers, no junior consultants.
WHAT I USE
The set-up behind the work.
Tools change fast. These are what I use today, and what I bring to the agencies I work with.
Coding agents
Claude Code, working on real tickets to your agency’s standards.
Design
Pencil and well-organised Figma files, so agents can read designs properly.
Build loops
Each piece is built, checked automatically and reviewed by a second AI model before the next one starts.
QA agents
An agent that clicks through a site like a real user, on phones and desktops, and comes back with screenshots.
WHERE I FIT
One person,
backed by a team.
Ansell AI is me, working directly with you. When an agency needs more hands, I can bring in Code23, the digital agency I founded, for larger builds, or Markko for marketplace projects. Both are mine, and I’ll always say so.
- Ansell AI
- Code23 · larger builds
- Markko · marketplaces
THE CREDENTIAL, IN NUMBERS
- years running an agency
- 20+
- businesses of my own rebuilt with agentic AI
- 8
- AI agents at work in my own business
- 30+
- of UK SMEs now use AI, up from 35% a year ago (BCC & Atos, 2026)
- 54%